Little Dribbler

One of the blank shirts Kathy gave me for Dashiell was navy. I knew right away I had to stitch something to match his Illini sweatpants that my parents gave him a while back!

The 3" applique basketball is from GG designs. I was trying to come up with text to put with it like "Future Illini" or something, but "Little Dribbler" was included in the design set, and frankly, it's pretty accurate! He's been quite a drooler from the beginning, always a slobbery mess. :)

The shirt looks pretty good here, but you should have seen it by the end of the day...

Where'd D Go?

In early fall Kathy sent Dashiell a cute camo onesie and pants set. He has outgrown the onesie, but the pants still fit. Then after Christmas she sent me home with some blank shirts, so this weekend I stitched a shirt to match his pants:

The camo D was a freebie on Sew Forum (doesn't seem to be available anymore, and I don't have every letter of the alphabet, just a few).

Thankfully I was able to keep up with him at the park... he didn't blend in with the blue rubber ground cover. :)

Special Delivery

This Special Delivery onesie fulfills the final 2009 gift certificate that Michelle gave as a baby shower gift.

The original design is from Sew Terific Designs. I then customize the design with baby's birthplace, birth date, time, weight and full name. I've stitched over forty of these designs, each one so special and unique!

Burp cloth

The only downside to having a shower before a baby is born is that Mama has the right to change her mind! This burp cloth is just me making good on a promise. :)

Same monogram/font/fabric/ribbon as before, just a different name. Anyone need a baby gift for Sarah?

Casserole Carrier

A friend of ours got married this fall, and I was very delinquent in sending a gift, so much so that we decided to wait and deliver it in person when we traveled to IL for Christmas. :) And I've now been delinquent in posting pictures of it!

I was so pleased with the casserole carriers I stitched for Susie that I decided to do something similar for Dawn. I opted to use ivory placemats and stitch the design in what I thought to be her favorite color purple (although it may no longer be after her current editing gig, hee hee...)

The chef hat and utensils design is from Embroidery Library. I used Embird Alphabet #8 for the text. The border design came from Dee Giles.

Sibling shirts, a year later

Right before Dashiell was born, I stitched coordinating sibling shirts for the kids so Annaliese would have something special to wear when she came to visit us in the hospital. Her shirt still fits, but believe it or not, Dashiell has outgrown that 0-3 month sized onesie! :) For his birthday I stitched him a new shirt -- same design, just a much bigger size.


Today is at least the third time the kids have matched, but I hadn't been able to get a picture of the two of them together. Still not sure I was all that successful today. Annaliese was enthusiastic and trying hard to help:

I did manage to get a decent "on the go" shot of Dashiell, who won't stay still unless he's asleep.

Here's what I got, there was no chance of removing those two cars from Dashiell's hands, I think they are glued there. By the time I got him to cooperate, Annaliese is a little glazed over. Oh well. She's wearing a pink headband and he's got a pacifier in his mouth, so it's pretty accurate! Oh, Annaliese suggested blackening in one of the lower teeth on the design since she has lost a tooth, but I opted not to do that. :)

They both sure have changed in a year's time!

Happy New Year!

It's hard to believe 2010 is finally here. 2009 was a crazy, stressful year here at my house, primarily because of a new baby (who isn't much of a baby anymore). We are glad to have his first year behind us and look forward to what the new year has in store for us all.
New Year's Day brings us to the close of the "Baby's First" bib series I did for Dashiell. While I have posted pictures of all of these bibs already, I thought I'd do a quick summary so we can all see how Dashiell has grown through the year. Since he was born Dec 19 I didn't bother to do a bib for his first Christmas and New Year; I started with Valentine's Day and made my way back to New Year.




The first four bibs were primarily to catch drool and spit-up. The last four got put to good use. Thanksgiving Day:

First time eating cake:

He wore his Christmas bib a lot, here he is at the church Christmas party, didn't actually get a good picture on Christmas Day from what I can find...

... and ringing in the New Year at Arby's for breakfast on the way home from IL. :)

What a fun set! I love these designs!!

My New Toy!

Believe it or not, this is the 400th post on my "Stitched by Janay" blog. CRAZY. At times I find myself very frustrated that I can't accomplish as much as I want, but when I look back (especially through the Picasa web albums associated with my blog) I am pretty amazed at what all I've stitched in the last two and a half years while being a SAHM of little kids. It's been so fun to embroider personalized items, document exactly what I did and share pictures online, initially with just my mom and MIL, but now with all of you who follow my blog.

In the last month I have FINALLY joined Facebook, and I've created a fan page for Stitched by Janay -- please come join the fun by becoming a fan. I plan to upload pictures to different albums to make it easier to browse, and as I figure it all out I hope to create an album where you can add pictures of your own Stitched by Janay items in use. Have no fear -- if you aren't on Facebook and don't want to join, I will continue to update this blog as usual (it will just feed directly into Facebook).

Before I sign off on this 400th post, I wanted to share pictures of my new toy!

My MIL Kathy gave me an Accuquilt GO! Fabric Cutter along with the rag dies. I am SO EXCITED. I have already started cutting a rag quilt for Dashiell which I have been putting off for a while. I'm anxious to get it done and enjoy how much time the die cutting process is going to save me -- no more snipping a quilt for hours!
This afternoon I cut out all the small blocks for the quilt:



The flannel for the small blocks are receiving blankets that match Dashiell's crib bedding. The big squares will be from this cute monkey flannel I bought a while back. Here is the quilt design that I'm using, and a preview of what it will look like:


Hopefully the final product will be posted here sooner than later! :)

Rooster Place Mats

My mom's kitchen is decorated with roosters. I saw these phrases a long time ago and have wanted to do something with them ever since -- this year's Christmas gift was finally the time.
Here's a place mat for my dad to use:

And one for my mom:

Hee, hee...
The rooster and hen are from Rease's Realistic Designs set "Raucous RedWork Roosters". (Join her yahoo group to snag them for free!) I added the text with Embird Alphabet #33.